Chapter Update 1/19/2026

 

Hello honored battle brethren! Another weekend has gone by, and over that weekend many of our brethren have battled it out with those who would challenge the supremacy of the First Legion Dark Angels chapter. It was slow compared to last weekend, with only about 75% of the players from the weekend before. Unfortunately, it also wasn't a good weekend for us, with no lists that went undefeated or went X/1. For some reason, BCP decided to hide the Texas Open from me. I didn't know it had been held till someone posted about it on the Angelis Mortis Discord server. I had to put "Texas" in may search parameters to get BCP to show the event. That big-time mattered, because we in fact had two X/1 lists and an event-winning undefeated lists, all from the Texas Open.

The Texas Open was a 6-round, 166-person event held in, to no one's surprise, Lewisville, Texas. Dark Angels dominated that event, with DA lists taking 1st, 4th, and 7th places. The event champion was Cam Hawkins of Warp Storm Chasers, who went undefeated with his Wrath of the Rock list. You can see Cam's list on BCP. We'll break it down below. 

LION ON THE JOB Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Deathwing Assault Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Ravenwing Command Squad Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Deathwing Knights: 5 awesome chonky swordy boys Invader ATV: melta buggy Land Speeder Vengeance Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Well, my goodness! A Wrath of the Rock lists with 18 Ravenwing Knights was not on my 2026 Bingo card! It's not the most obvious way to build a Wrath list, because most of us want to maximize our ability to use Leonine Aggression with multiple Deathwing units, and this list only has two, with one of them being Assault Intercessors with Azrael attached to them. 

Here's a snapshot of the Ravenwing Black Knight profile, courtesy of 39K.

The pictures are saving me a few words here, so bear with me. As you can see, Black Knights are a fast unit with good activations in both the Shooting and Fight phases.

A squad that can get every member within 9" of a target can send a cascade of Damage 2 plasma into something Cam wants to make go away. It's good for picking up elite Infantry, opponents have to respect the threat into Vehicles and Monsters. Many Vehicles and Monsters being Toughness 10, Cam can boost one squad to wounding on 4's with Relics of the Dark Age, and another with the Thunderstrike's boost. Or, potentially, boost one squad to wounding on 3's with both if removing the target is important enough.

The Black Knight combat weapon (formerly known as Corvus Hammers to us oldheads) is an interesting profile. It's pretty good for removing chaff, but not great for picking up elite Infantry. With the Black Knights' datasheet ability, however, it does become a major threat to Monsters and Vehicles.

The Knights of old Caliban rule buffs the BK combat weapons to crit-wounding Monsters and Vehicles on 4's, which means a full squad with no buffs will, on average, inflict 6 Dev Wounds on the charge, and 8 with Oath. Pitch a Grenade during the Shooting phase, and they stand good odds of taking out a wide variety of big targets.

Unfortunately, the defensive profile of Black Knights makes them vulnerable to a lot of very common weapons, but Wrathhuman Physiology helps mitigate that issue, and they have the speed to be able to use terrain to screen themselves from the biggest threats, then pop out and do their damage.

Cam also has one Ravenwing Command Squad, which he can attach to a Black Knight squad or to his Outriders if he's so inclined. Attaching them to the Outriders gives him a brick of 4-wound bikes opponents have to chew through, and makes the Champion's sword Strength 6 Damage 3 on the charge, which is enticing. However, attaching them to a Black Knight squad multiplies the effects of buffs and unit rules, since the Command Squad members are armed the same as Black Knights, except the Champion whose close combat weapon is a 6-attack master crafted power sword hitting on 2's.

Getting to the rest of Cam's list, we see Lion Dad, who is always worth putting in a list on his own merits, but he's also very beneficial if you're playing Black Knights. No Hiding from the Watchers mitigates the effect of failed Hazardous rolls, and Martial Exemplar increases their Fight Phase output, which could generate more Devastating Wounds.  There's the one squad of Deathwing Knights with swords, with the Terminator Chaplain carrying Deathwing Assault attached to them, so Cam can Deep Strike them first turn. Deathwing Knights don't ordinarily need a character attached, but you need one if you want the squad to benefit from an Enhancement, so you may as well take the sword squad and the Chaplain for the extra attacks and +1 to Wound. Azrael is there to generate CP, which this list is going to use a lot of, with an Assault Intercessor squad to make a pretty good melee threat. There's the usual Combi-Lieutenant and Intercessors for the usual reasons. Cam doesn't have Scouts, but instead has a small squad of Outriders and an ATV for utility work. The list is rounded out by a Land Speeder Vengeance and Storm Speeder Thunderstrike, who provide fire support, buff shooting, and can deliver some out-of-sequence pain to opponents.

So, why all the Black Knights? I'm inclined to think they are a solution to both Victrix Honour Guard and C'Tan. Opponents spamming Victrix aren't going to be too happy to face massed Damage 2 plasma. Absent Oath, if you can get a full squad of Ravenwing Knights within Rapid Fire range of a squad of Victrix in the open, they're apt to pick up 3-4 of them with their shooting, and likely 1-2 on in the Fight phase if they can Charge as well. C'Tan are more annoying to face, but Black Knight close combat attacks after a successful charge will ignore a lot of C'Tan's defenses. One squad isn't apt to pick up a C'Tan, but two stand a good chance, especially with Oath, and Cam can potentially have multiple Oath targets a turn.

As it happens, Cam got to test his list out against Awakened Dynasty Necrons in the 1st round, and buried them 94-22. 2nd round was a mirror match into Wrath Dark Angels played by Drake Kennett, which Cam won 96-36. 3rd round Cam crushed Kauyon T'au 100-60. 4th round Cam massacred Grizzled Militarum 100-48. 5th round Cam went into Grizzle-Tarum again, winning with a comfortable 71-56. For a dramatic final game, Cam squeaked out an 86-85 win against Spectacle of Spite Drukhari. Congratulations Cam!

Cam's 2nd round Dark Angels opponent, Drake Kennett, went 4-2 for the event and took 37th place, which in a 166 player event is still hella good.  Well done Drake!

The next best performing Dark Angels list of the weekend belongs to our highly esteemed brethren Kit Smith Hanna, who keeps bringing glory to the legion chapter while showing that one can win with an Ironstorm list. Kit went 5-1 and took 4th place. You can see Kit's list on BCP, and we'll discuss it below. 

It's Back
Lion Dad - Warlord
Azrael
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon: Master of Machine War
Techmarine: Target Augury Web
Techmarine: Adept of the Omnissiah
Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: 5 flying choppy boys
Land Speeder Vengeance
Land Speeder Vengeance
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Redemptor Dreadnought
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Stormraven Gunship
Vindicator

There are all kinds of wacky and wily things going on with this list. I'm actually having a hard time choosing where to start. I suppose let's start with the Stormraven Gunship. That thing is a high-speed pile of guns with Fly and -1 Damage. Kit's loading his out with twin hurricane bolters, a twin multi-melta, a twin heavy plasma cannon, and it always has two Stormstrike missile launchers. That is a bunch of Strength 8-10 Damage 3 or D6 Melta 2 shots, plus up to 24 twin linked bolter shots against a target within 12", and with a 20" Move characteristic and Fly there is no reason any target can't be within 12". If the Stormraven is within 6" of the Techmarine with Target Augury Web in the Command Phase, it can have Lethal Hits in the Shooting phase. If its shooting goes into a target that is below Starting Strength, for 2 CP Kit can give it Sustained Hits 1 critting on 5's. That target may well be below Starting Strength, because Kit can also hit the target with the Thunderstrike to get +1 to Wound against it if it's a Monster or Vehicle. Without Oath, just the Hurricane Bolters are doing 15 wounds to any target with all that going on, and the Stormstrike Missiles, twin linked multimelta and twin linked plasma cannon are certainly not going to do anything any good either. Kit probably volleys that thing into his opponent's teeth first turn, deletes one or two things, and forces his opponent to deal with it while the rest of his list is tearing their forces apart. 

Then you've got a combo with Lion Dad, the Redemptor Dreadnought, the Darkshroud, and the Adept of the Omnissiah Techmarine. The Redemptor is a Toughness 10, 2+ save unit with 12 wounds and reduces incoming damage by 1. The Techmarine can blank the damage from one failed save on the Redemptor per round, can give it back wounds, and add +1 to its To Hit rolls. Being within 3" of the Redemptor gives the Techmarine Lone Op. Lion Dad being within 3" of the Techmarine gives him Lone Op. Being within 6" of the Darkshroud gives them all Benefit of Cover and -1 to be hit by Shooting attacks. Lion Dad gives the Redemptor reroll 1's To Hit and To Wound in the Fight phase, which is as good as full rerolls if the Techmarine has buffed him, or if Kit has played Ancient Fury on him.

By now I'm sure everyone likely to be reading this knows that running two Land Speeders Vengeance as a pair is good. In the Ironstorm it's got more juice, thanks to the Power of the Machine Spirit strat. It's a retributive shooting strat that triggering when a Vehicle has been reduced to below half strength. Opposing players are going to shoot at the Vengeances, because they can scarcely afford not to. This would be another place where Kit might uses his Adept Techy, keeping him near the Vengeances in order to make it more likely he can arrange to trigger the strat, potentially getting two volleys of out-of-sequence Vengeance shooting in one turn, one from the strat, one from the second Vengeance when the first is destroyed.

One interesting thing about this list - Azrael does not have a squad to join. I think Kit is just having him sit on the backfield objective, because he doesn't really have another unit that can obviously be tasked to that. That seems a little precarious, but I suppose there's not much Indirect that will pose much of a threat to him with his 2+ save, and light skirmishing units are going to struggle to pick him up before he can murder them.

I suppose you can see I was intrigued by this list. I'm not sure how well an Ironstorm will work for you if you don't happen to have a Stormraven, but if you do, maybe you can duplicate some of Kit's success with it.

1st round Kit bludgeoned a Blades of Ultramar list 82-37. 2nd round he crushed Reaper's Wager Drukhari 100-44. 3rd round he humbled Grand Coven Thousand Sons 90-66. 4th round he scored a comfortable 90-75 against Conceited Emperor's Children (isn't that all of them?). 5th round he had a close 70-60 win against GrizzleTarum. 6th round his reign of domination was finally ended by an Ultramarines Gladius, 78-93. It's disappointing to see a Dark Angels list end with a loss, but the 5-round winning streak before it is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Well done Kit!

The third list to make the top 10 at Texas Open was Imperial News Network's Raul Valencia's Wrath of the Rock list, with which he went 5-1 and took 7th place. You can see Raul's list on BCP. We'll take a look at it below. 

Does this kill 3 Ctan and a wraith brick? Well shit i hope i don’t have to find out. Also, reminder, because every game people are surprised, yes Lion has a 3++ Lion Dad - Warlord Azrael Judiciar: Ancient Weapons Lieutenant Lieutenant with Combi-weapon Ravenwing Command Squad: Lord of the Ravenwing Intercessor Squad: 5 bolter boys Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys Centurion Devastator Squad: 3 super-chonky las-missile boys Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys Incursor Squad: 5 spotty boys Inner Circle Companions: 6 spooky awesome swordy boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

You notice what this list doesn't have? This list doesn't have Deathwing Knights. The only Deathwing units it does have are the Inner Circle Companions and whoever Azrael is attached to, which I infer will be the Hellblasters, along with the Lieutenant for that sweet Lethal+Sustained combo.

This list is a lot shootier than I'm accustomed to seeing a Wrath of the Rock list be, with a pile of plasma shots from the Hellblasters and the Ravenwing units, plus some good anti-armor shooting from the Cent Devs. Raul also has the Incursors to buff shooting into a target, which can essentially have the Cent Devs rerolling all their Hit rolls because they natively reroll 1's all the time. The Ravenwing units have the mobility to get lines of sight on units opponents are trying to hide, and the Hellblasters can wait behind a wall until something tasty steps out and walk through the wall to obliterate it. With Azrael and the Lieutenant attached too, that unit is not an inconsiderable melee threat either, and Azrael confers the Deathwing keyword, so it might be charging and killing things on the opponent's turn. 

As far as the Ravenwing go, I'm inclined to think Raul is not attaching the Ravenwing Command Squad to anything, but just running them as a trio of skirmishing units. I've often had a hard time against opponents who can run an MSU game and trade up into my expensive stuff. Three Black Knights are only 80 points, can shoot 9 plasma shots and swing 9 power weapon attacks with Devastating Wounds. They can each potentially pick up 2 MSU units. The Command Squad is a little more expensive, but also has better melee with the Champion's 6 master-crafted power weapon attacks hitting on 2's, and can reach that little bit further with +1 to Advance and Charge rolls, plus rerolling those rolls courtesy of the Lord of the Ravenwing enhancement. 

Lion Dad is always good. In this list I think he can be used to flush opponents out of their backfield to come into Raul's guns. Forest-walk him into Reserves, then Rapid Ingress him on the opponent's turn so he can go murder something the following turn. Opponents then have to maneuver to deal with him, which can expose their units to getting blasted off the table. Meanwhile, any opponent who thinks he can then just rush at Raul's shooting units has to take into account the Inner Circle Companions with the Ancient Weapons Judiciar. That's not a unit anyone wants to mess with.

The list clearly worked for Raul. 1st round he crushed Subterranean Tyranids 85-36. 2nd round he squeaked out an 83-81 win against Biosantic Genestealer Cult. 3rd round he buried Spite Drukhari 89-37. 4th round he had another nail-biter, 79-76 against Spearhead Imperial Knights. 5th round he took his loss, a humbling 37-85 against an Ultramarines Gladius. He bounced back to drub Shield Host Custodes 100-70. Well done Raul!

Honorable Mentions

Jeff Jew of Xenos Petting Zoo took 14th out of 173 players at Warhammer 40,000 GT - Warhammer Open Palm Springs. He went 4-4 with his Wrath of the Rock list. 

Ben Neal of Denver Mountain Trolls went 4-2 and took 12th out of 87 with his Gladius list at Denver 40K Fight Club January Open 2026.

Well done, honored battle brethren!

Statistics

It was a bit of a slower weekend than last weekend. We had 36 players who played 231 games and won 111 of them for a win rate of 49%. We had 3 X/0-X/1 results, with 1 of those being an event win. 

Wrath of the Rock was the most played detachment with 29 players, almost three times as many as all the other ones combined. Wrath players earned a 48% win rate, 2 X-results, and the event win.

Next most played was the Gladius, with 5 players and a 60% win rate, but no X-results.

Two players used the Stormlance, earning a dead-even 50% win rate

Two players used the Ironstorm, earning a 58% win rate and 1 X-result

One oddball played a Vanguard and scored a 40% win rate.

Finally, one diehard played an Inner Circle Task Force, scoring a 33% win rate.

That, honored battle brethren, is what I have for you this week. Be sure to check out Dank List Wargaming and Black Crow Gaming on YouTube for Dark Angels content created by real enthusiasts for the legion chapter. It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a new year, both for putting my skills to the test and bringing you the news of our beloved army. As always, I hope you find my work enjoyable and informative. May we all strive ever for glorious victory! For The Lion!